VGC10 Feedback Thread

[Pokérob]

I thought I'd make this to go over things anybody wants to address as last year we had the lottery system queried. The debate over what was seen at the end and what was prevailing etc rain dance > TR > good stuff w/e.

Anyway, this year we started off with a lot of Zapdons I noticed in the wifi front. Smeargle made his introduction into the new year with a Dialga for trick room teams or just for good stuffs. Later on players started to utilize the 154 base of Mewtwo with an Abomasnow to make the Snowtwo teams! Togekiss made it's transfer to VGC10 with a Dialga or a Kyogre to pull away moves.

Metagross' usage I feel decreased compared to usage last year, ludicolo didn't change in use really and enabled the dominance of grass knot to occur. Toxicroak works well in both years and has been able to work well with it's fighting moves as has Infernape and the introduction of Hitmontop most profoundly from Zerowing.

Finally, we then saw Rayquaza make himself not look like the nimble pokémon that everyone could counter and in the end was part of the US Champion's lead with a familiar but rarely paired with rayquaza... kangaskhan!


Overall, this year has been debatable after the introduction of restricted pokémon (mostly ubers) and the uprise of new pokémon into the new year of VGC.

How was VGC10 for you? Was it better then last year? Did you find a bigger variation in teams? D'you think some players proved their wins were not just luck and proved to have substantial skill compared to the gossip?

Finally, what are you hoping for on the VGC11 side of things? Most of all, who are you rooting for on the Worlds side of things? :naughty:

 

[Ninahaza]

I thought I'd make this to go over things anybody wants to address as last year we had the lottery system queried. The debate over what was seen at the end and what was prevailing etc rain dance > TR > good stuff w/e.

Anyway, this year we started off with a lot of Zapdons I noticed in the wifi front. Smeargle made his introduction into the new year with a Dialga for trick room teams or just for good stuffs. Later on players started to utilize the 154 base of Mewtwo with an Abomasnow to make the Snowtwo teams! Togekiss made it's transfer to VGC10 with a Dialga or a Kyogre to pull away moves.

Metagross' usage I feel decreased compared to usage last year, ludicolo didn't change in use really and enabled the dominance of grass knot to occur. Toxicroak works well in both years and has been able to work well with it's fighting moves as has Infernape and the introduction of Hitmontop most profoundly from Zerowing.

Finally, we then saw Rayquaza make himself not look like the nimble pokémon that everyone could counter and in the end was part of the US Champion's lead with a familiar but rarely paired with rayquaza... kangaskhan!


Overall, this year has been debatable after the introduction of restricted pokémon (mostly ubers) and the uprise of new pokémon into the new year of VGC.

How was VGC10 for you? Was it better then last year? Did you find a bigger variation in teams? D'you think some players proved their wins were not just luck and proved to have substantial skill compared to the gossip?

Finally, what are you hoping for on the VGC11 side of things? Most of all, who are you rooting for on the Worlds side of things? :naughty:

first of all let me start of by saying the VGC's this year was infinitly better than last year mainly because i got turned away last year because of the lottery system. when i went outside i saw 2 kids crying because they got turned away and i am sure somewhere even a senior was crying lol. anyways this year everyone had a chance and thats why i think its better this year.

Q- D'you think some players proved their wins were not just luck and proved to have substantial skill compared to the gossip?

A- i think its more like Good players got screwed over alot by luck this year because those who won by luck already had a rep established as excellent players. example is when i lost to deagle at nationals because he got lucky with hax. that one battle doesnt speak for deagle as a "lucky player" because before we even begun i knew how skilled of a player he was.

as for next year i am pumped. bring it TPCI [no 3v3 battles please].
i am rooting for the Ha's and Badintent at worlds among others.

 

[Sixfortyfive]

The elimination of the lottery system and the fact that there was actually a stop within a day's driving distance for me automatically makes VGC2010 superior to last year's. I didn't even consider attending previous VGCs for these reasons alone.

The game rules were fine imo. I'd prefer 6v6 doubles to 4v4, but I understand the time concerns. Didn't mind the ubers at all, surprisingly, but I wouldn't want to have them allowed for next year. BW is going to bring tons of new stuff to the game and I'd rather not have it centralized around so few Pokes.

There was only one thing about the tournament operation itself that gave me pause, and that was during the swiss rounds at nationals when the participants were allowed to spectate other matches on the TVs if they finished theirs early. Seems like it'd be way too easy to scout for info on your opponents. Other than that things seemed to work great (barring that unfortunate power outage in the semis...)

Something more really should be done about hack checks. I realize that the staff only had limited resources and couldn't check everyone at the gate, but there's gotta be a better way. Game Freak ought to put better checks into the game itself, so that you couldn't even bring Pokemon with illegal EVs and such into a link battle in the first place. This seems to be the most glaring flaw with the current VGC structure.

That's pretty much all I got. The experience was a blast, at any rate.

 

[Synre]

I have only a very theoretical understanding of both this year and last year's metagames, but it at least felt like to me that the Ubers did to the VGC metagame much what we always worried they would do to "our" singles game - the sheer power different was pretty centralizing. While a few people managed to do it, there were very few teams who weren't running 2/2 Ubers every round, because it just wasn't super viable not to to do so - and since those Ubers were basically 2 of 6 Pokemon(Kyogre, Palkia, Dialga, Mewtwo, Groudon, Giratina, though stylish Rayquaza in the finals was a nice twist) it made the Pokemon in each match pretty similar.

This became even more obvious with what the non-ubers on most teams were - Hitmontop and to a lesser extent other Fake Outters(hello Kangaskhan, Infernape), because they were the best at supporting the Ubers(Kyogre in particular, obviously) were basically in one group of viable non-ubers, whereas Pokemon that countered some of the Pokemon in that group and/or the Ubers filled out the game(Toxicroak, Crobat, Blissey, etc.). I actually thought the metagame was really fun as is, but I would definitely agree with a complaint a lot of people have been making on IRC that it is very centralized, so I would love to see non-ubers 2v2 next year - especially since we'll have a lot of new Pokemon to break in.



The only real metagame-change I think should be made, regardless of a mostly neglible inclusion of Ubers, is to go back to the Stadium-style "show your opponent all 6 Pokemon and THEN pick your 4." I think there's two main reasons this is a good idea:

1. Having played this game since Red and Green came out in Japan, I have never seen any metagame of Pokemon where lead Pokemon matter so much. If your leads lose to your opponents leads the battle is basically over in many cases. If you could see your opponents team before selecting your leads you'd at least be able to anticipate who they want to send out, and it'd become a prediction game as you jockeyed for advantage, rather than sheer luck/probability for the counterteam.

2. It'd also bring some long-term thinking to the game, which is really hard to do well with how little information you have now. It becomes more feasible to anticipate your opponents 3rd and 4th Pokemon based on the leads so you can manage your own Pokemon a little more intelligently... I think it adds a good level of decision making that was absent this year.



Something I really appreciated having not done this IRL mons thing since JAA in 2006 was how much more accommodating and generally friendly/helpful the staff was this year. I actually had a pretty good experience at JAA Detroit, but I will probably never forgive the people who rant the event at Bryant Park for the ridiculous anti-Smogon bias. It's amazing in four years we've gone from blatantly rigged pairings and staff members giving us dirty looks and whining about "you smogon hackers" to what happened this year, with the staff at least trying not to pair us with our buddies(I think my round 2 match with Fishy was the only one we had that coulda/should been avoided, I would NOT suggest that staff member for rehire), and it was nice to have some people who were running it that actually understood Pokemon, like Marriland(site rivalry or no, it sure beats someone who doesn't get the game) and Nick McCord.

Speaking of which... I think the most fun thing to me about being at the events this year was the environment. I knew I wasn't going to be super competitive individually without Aamto-esque luck - I just didn't put the work in to learning the metagame or into really learning doubles at all, having not touched it in a few years. But I still had the time of my life at the events, and the environment there was a huge part of it.

I was a little leery when I heard how active the emcee was, with memory's of Hulk Hogan being all "BODY SLAM? THAT MUST BE THE BEST MOVE IN THE GAME!!" during the JAA Finals on the stream from Bryant Park, but Nick McCord is amazing and adds so much to the event. I really can't imagine anything he could do better - he just makes it so much more fun to be there, and has a lot of energy the crowd can feed off(we may have done a little too much of that). He actually understands whats going on on the screen, too, which sure helps a bunch, but he's just so witty. Those of us there who've been playing Pokemon since the beginning really appreciated all the Pokemon Stadium quotes, and the stuff he improvised was just as good. I can't say enough good things about him - fantastic guy, and I sure hope I see him again next year. Everyone in our group would say the same.



Anyway, not sure if anyone from VGC will see the thread or not, but I just thought I'd say thank you to them just in case. It was a really special experience for all of us to get to come and compete and hang out with some people we'd probably have never run into in person otherwise. If you'd told me in 2000 or even in 2005 that there'd still be big events like this going on in real life I don't think I would have believed it, and it seems like things are even growing again rather than shrinking, now. You guys put on an awesome event, and if things were exactly the same next year I'd have no real complaints. Thanks for doing this, guys. I'll be back next year, and it sure makes me glad I stuck with the games.

 

[Sixfortyfive]

I'd be cool with 4-of-6 Stadium-style sideboard team picking.

Also seconding the praise for the staff, down to the word. Need to get off my ass and e-mail somebody to thank them personally.

 

[Synre]

also OH SHIT I forgot about the most important change that should be made

dear god please make the juniors go first. I realize we weren't setting a great example for the youngins by not even leaving bars until 2am-4am, but seriously guys can we PLEASE make the juniors go first. Getting there at 8am would have been a real drag even under normal circumstances - waking up at like 7 is a couple hours before I need to for work, and I haven't had a class before noon since my first semester of college. I haven't been up this early more than twice since I was in high school. The kids are used to waking up for cartoons or whatever anyway, right?

I know a few of us were late on a couple days(including a competitor) and we all got very little sleep throughout the weekend... would really have loved to be the group with the late start time.

 

[JRank]

also OH SHIT I forgot about the most important change that should be made

dear god please make the juniors go first. I realize we weren't setting a great example for the youngins by not even leaving bars until 2am-4am, but seriously guys can we PLEASE make the juniors go first. Getting there at 8am would have been a real drag even under normal circumstances - waking up at like 7 is a couple hours before I need to for work, and I haven't had a class before noon since my first semester of college. I haven't been up this early more than twice since I was in high school. The kids are used to waking up for cartoons or whatever anyway, right?

I know a few of us were late on a couple days(including a competitor) and we all got very little sleep throughout the weekend... would really have loved to be the group with the late start time.

I figure the reason they did this is because the Juniors had to get up early for all the other regionals, while the Seniors got the late start times, so they switched it around. Also, think about the parents, they probably didn't enjoy having to wake up at ~6:00 to be there with their Poketot and stand in line for several hours. Like you said, you guy were at bars until 2 in the morning. I felt fine getting up at 7:00 to get there by 8, and my dad and I had driven ~12 hours the day before. (But I am 13)

 

[Shinryu]

Pretty much the elimination of that shitty lottery system was the BEST thing to happen, I too missed VGC last year because of it >.>

So anyways, I know probably many will disagree, but I liked the inclusion of 2 ubers, it's a reasonable compromise between none and all-out unrestricted uber warfare. More than likely, I'm willing to be next year probably will be without ubers, then next year with once we're familiar with the new ones.

 

[JRank]

Pretty much the elimination of that shitty lottery system was the BEST thing to happen, I too missed VGC last year because of it >.>

So anyways, I know probably many will disagree, but I liked the inclusion of 2 ubers, it's a reasonable compromise between none and all-out unrestricted uber warfare. More than likely, I'm willing to be next year probably will be without ubers, then next year with once we're familiar with the new ones.

I agree with you. I though the inclusion of Ubers made it better than with out them.

 

[Sixfortyfive]

Like I said, I was fine with ubers for this competition, as it finally gave me an excuse to actually USE those legendaries I RNG'd for. I just don't think they should be around next year. You're kidding yourself if you don't think they make a lot of other Pokes unusable, and I don't think that's desirable.

The only way you could allow ubers and still get some semblance of variety/balance is if you can only use one and it's used in a 6v6 format imo.

 

[drug_duck]

Apart from all the positive aspects of this year's VGC that already have been taken into account by several members before me, I want to draw people's attention to the fact that the Pokémon Company actually slowed down with price support this year, seeing how they only give half of all western people that were invited paid trips and I have read from quite a fair amount of people who won invitations to Kona but just cannot go because a student (which is what most of us are anyway) simply cannot afford it. Well, this probably won't change next year, so I am going on to the next point.

Tournament mode
So for regionals / European qualifiers, some sort of direct elimination satisfies a great amount of people while providing the event hosts with the possibility to still finish the tournament quickly. The point is, Single Elimination often leads to situations where good players are thrown out of a tourney simply because they got their ass royally haxed. What I'd like to see here is Double Elimination. Of course it then adds up for everyone and now players who got severely haxed twice are out but there are still some major advantages. It doesn't take as much time as Swiss takes, everyone has a second chance and the two subs (if they stay with Doubles 4on4) now can be used strategically - if you got kicked out of the Winner's bracket and face the same person later on in Loser's, you'd need those two subs and the option to mix up your team.
Even better is having real national championships in Europe. The Single Elimination tournaments here are a joke compared to Swiss tournament in the States and Japan and I wouldn't be surprised if Europeans got their asses handed to them by the U.S. and Japan this year again.

 

[Shinryu]

Oh yeah, just 1 more thing...20 minute timers SUCK. Please increase to at least 30min, or even better, the same time you give TCG players: 40min.

 

[Imawario]

Pretty much the number one thing that I liked (along with everyone else) was the removal of the lottery system. Mike Liesik is a great guy for listening to the opinions of the players and I personally thanked him for his efforts to allow a greater chance for everyone to play.

I was also glad to see them bring in chairs for the players after round 1. Yes this is a small thing, but still it beats having to lean over the tables all the time.

I didn't really like the inclusion of ubers this year because it tends to create less variety in teams due to almost everyone using Abomasnow. In spite of this dislike, I can see how this was out of the hands of the officials this year. When I discussed this with Mike, he said they were under tremendous pressure from Japan to include them or face a split meta-game at worlds. Because of this, I can see why they went ahead and ran things the way they did.

I've never liked time limits on real life battles. (they are needed on the sims though) However, 20 minutes is a huge step from the 8 minute time limit that was used at JAA 4 years ago. Almost everyone here knows about my encounter with the horrors of an 8 minute time limit. If you don't, PM me sometime and I will be glad to share with you why I will remain scarred for life because of it.

Overall, I did enjoy this tournament and you will most definitely see me compete again next year. I just gotta brush up on my doubles since doubles isn't exactly my best when it comes to this game. :p

 

[Oberon]

Just one thing that Synre mentioned: The Pokemon Stadium quotes... were the one thing that really made me happy compared to 90% of the rest of it. Nick McCord is truly an awesome MC.

The metagame wasn't surprisingly shallow. After Seattle, it became mostly about the same Pokemon: Kyogre, Hitmontop, Palkia, Abomasnow, Infernape, Metagross, Smeargle and Dialga. There were those who used other very viable Pokemon such as Bronzong and such as well, which was nice. The "restricted" Pokemon are what decided the metagame right off the bat and hopefully next year it becomes a lot more open. Plus, a much wider metagame makes things more enjoyable and adds a LOT more surprise to what people might use.

Also because of the ubers-style metagame this year, most things were specially-based and not mixed like they were last year. I wasn't around last year but the general idea I get is that when you don't have a restricted list of ubers, you have more options and the scope of what is useful and what is not is much wider, therefore both defense and special defense become important instead of primarily special attack and special defense. I did like at nationals that the team that prevailed was a physically based one, too, and tbh I almost expected it.

 

[Werecario]

I did not compete last year, though I did make a "team" that I was planning on competing with, though I'm glad I did not. I did not know about Iv's and I was very crappy at ev training, so the team would have sucked.

Anyway, I do know about last years metagame, so I will say what I do and don't like about this year. I, like everyone else, love the fact it is not lottery. This eliminates the chances of a good player getting knocked out before they even have a chance. I did not like the inclusion of Ubers. I have never been a person that has liked ubers, and almost did not want to use any, but it was so hard to do well without using any due to the fact everyone else did. I did not like the fact that the metagame was run by mainly Kyogre and Palkia. I am hoping that they are removed from vgc next year while we get the chance to experiment with the new pokemon.

Another thing that I did not like, and have not really liked even last year, was the fact that even though event only pokemon aren't allowed, moves that can only be learned through event pokemon are. If you haven't figured out what I mean by this, then you must not know the meta very well, so I will tell you DV SMEARGLE... the bane of my existance. Anyway, DV is a move that, to me, seems like it should be banned. It has about a 65% to incapacitate a team and 80% chance to criple it. Pretty good odds. IMO I would rather fight a Latios with sould dew (a banned item) than a DV smeargle. I say these two complaints not to put down VGC, merely to say that it makes planning a team a pain in the butt with so much to counter. It is hard to make a team that counters all the leads out there, counters all the possible ubers, counters dv smeargle, counters TR, counters weather, and can hold its own against other surprise teams. Because of this I found that the variation of teams was not that big as everyone was trying to find the perfect team and there were only a few pokemon that fit that description for this years meta. I saw no Mamoswine, Slowking, Haryema, and many other pokemon this year that are very good, but either don't cut it when fighting ubers or are replaced by an uber that fits the position better.

I did like, nix that, love the MC and the staff. I did not know any of the previous years staff, but this years was great. It was so much fun to watch. I enjoyed the time even after I lost to a hacker, who happened to have a DV smeargle (which can really ruin a day lol). I loved talking with the staff in between rounds, they were really fun. It was really fun when me, Omegadonut, and another smogonite (sorry, i forgot) were the only three available for the 3rd round and the staffer gave us a funny look when we all three claimed to know each other, even though I have never talked to either of them before that day.

The things that I hope to see next year are:
-same staff or staff that was trained the same way.
-no lottery again
-better hack control
-no ubers
-no dark void
-BW pokemon, though this is like 99% going to happen already lol
-more money for travel, like top 2 get paid trips and top 8 get $300 for travel.
-different stop for worlds. As cool as Hawaii is for those going for free, there are so many people that have to rely on driving for travel and lets face it, driving to hawaii is very difficult a lot of times. I suspect a low turnout of both participants and spectators this year.
-A dallas regional still, a dallas nats would be cool too.
-And finally the most important thing, chairs.

VGC was great, and I enjoyed participating in it and am definitely doing it again.

 

[DeagleBeagle]

Yeah I think moves like spore are fine if they hit one at a time but not dark void, no sleep clause is fine as long as they are single-attacking sleep moves. Also well this is in any tier in general, but there needs to be another resistance to dragon besides just steel. Because Dragon is always better offensively than normal, only steel resists, while what resists normal is not only steel, but rock and ghost is immune to it. I think the metagame is getting less kyogre based by far since people have counters to it, and a lot of the kyogres still used are the non-scarf ones that seem to do much better.

 

[Oberon]

The things that I hope to see next year are:
-same staff or staff that was trained the same way.
-no lottery again
-better hack control
-no ubers
-no dark void
-BW pokemon, though this is like 99% going to happen already lol
-more money for travel, like top 2 get paid trips and top 8 get $300 for travel.
-different stop for worlds. As cool as Hawaii is for those going for free, there are so many people that have to rely on driving for travel and lets face it, driving to hawaii is very difficult a lot of times. I suspect a low turnout of both participants and spectators this year.
-A dallas regional still, a dallas nats would be cool too.
-And finally the most important thing, chairs.

VGC was great, and I enjoyed participating in it and am definitely doing it again.

I pretty much agree with your wish-list. Though to me DV wasn't the worst I had seen.

No lottery, no ubers, wider rewards (which might not be possible due to America probably not having as many resources as Japan and such), better hack control, a worlds that isn't on an island. xD Finally I really REALLY wish they had a regional in the midwest like Indianapolis was. Such as Chicago, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, even one in Ohio would be good, IMO. A 4-5 hour drive for the LCQ and all the fun I had at Indy was definitely worth it and that's how I'd like to do it next year. Though instead of it being an LCQ, a regional. Hopefully TPCi has made arrangements for events in the mid-west.

 

[drcossack]

-different stop for worlds. As cool as Hawaii is for those going for free, there are so many people that have to rely on driving for travel and lets face it, driving to hawaii is very difficult a lot of times. I suspect a low turnout of both participants and spectators this year.

Your wishlist looks solid, I'll agree to that. I do, however, have this bolded for a reason: driving to Hawaii actually is very difficult since it's in the middle of the Pacific (though, going by Google maps, you could always kayak.) :)

also, worlds rotates between Florida, California, and Hawaii.

 

[dtrain]

Well my only complaint would be the ubers part. Why would you want to face the same ubers in all of your matches? At least without ubers you can see variety in teams without the same ubers every single round. I think that would test a player in their skills since they would be forced to face a wide range in teams. Unlike in ubers where you just need to create a team that can handle ubers since most opponents would be relying on them since you know they would be in 2 out of their 4 spots (at least most ppl would take advantage and use them)

 

[Osirus182]

I personally feel this year on a whole was a much better organised event than we've seen in the past and this is just a hunch but, I believe the quality, rules, organisation will follow this year and just keep on improving year on year, something I'm sure we are all eagerly anticipating.

One thing that I would like to point out like DrugDuck stated, was the travel awards gifted to the competitors on a whole this year especially when considering where the final location will be held. Major props on Hawaii it is the perfect place in my opinion to hold the world championships, but seriously could they have located it any further away at any more expense?

If you were one of the unlucky or lucky runners up (depending on how you look at it) who recieved an the unpaid trip to worlds, how likely is it that you can afford it especially from anywhere in Europe, its just ridicuous and considering the market the Pokemon company aim these things towards how is a 13-19 year old meant to finance something like that, I'm not even going to mention the Juniors as I can image how literally heartbreaking it must have been to be given an invitation to compete on the ultimate stage but having the draw back of having to beg parents for something that is extremely unlikely unless their super rich (not mentioning anyone........Zog hehe) its like getting a VIP pass to the ultimate party but at the same time recieving a bill for thousands for all your hard work.

When I recieved my invitation for placing 3rd in the UK I could have cryed,
"congratulations, you've won an invitation to the world championships in Hawaii, you did extremely well this is a massive achievment and we look forward to seeing you there".............although they didnt mention the small print stating additional costs i.e selling everything you own and working 18 hours everyday until the tournament begins :P

I personally just think it would have been the more sensible thing to award the invitation all fully paid or not at all rather than get people hopes up for nothing in some cases.

I also would like to see more swiss round set ups within the tournament structure, again like DD said it prevents the better players from being luck haxed and gives everyone a fairer chance.

Oh and not asking for much but a European Championships wouldn't go a miss, they could even impliment it exactly like the Americans have their nationals, this would be amazing.

Whatever happens in the future I'm sure all these problems everyone keeps mentioning will all eventually be ironed out.

Concerning the Meta-game, I personally loved playing with Ubers this year I felt it brought something new to the VGC and interested me greatly but like others have stated previously I really am swaying towards the notion that a lot of pokemon will be restricted again next year like the 2009 championships, hence exploiting the new generation of pokemon in Black and White, it just makes more sense.

 

[BadIntent]

Well, the actual game is flawed as far as the lucky players advancing over a lot of more skilled players, but the events are ace. Like Ninahaza said, it was infinitely better for a ton of us than 09. So many of us didn't get to play after so much training. This year, as along as you were dedicated enough to wake up early, you were good. Double elimination would be nice (It would have saved me a hell of a lot of trouble), but with luck as prevalent as it is I just pretty much accepted the fact that the lucky players will advance no matter what elimination method was used. I played 7 rounds of swiss on Saturday, and even with that many a couple players that are better than me like BlueCookies (who was near the boarder) had it rough. Ryuzaki wasn't able to get in although she's better.

But yeah, the event! Staff was great in the US. UK need to get some better people though. The MC was really amazing too. They even had chairs for us at Nationals. Also, Mike Liesik used both of my ideas for moving the competitors away from the monitors to prevent scouting during top 16, and having players with a higher record during Swiss fight off of the screens. I'm glad he listens to the players He There wasn't a lot to buy, but the King of the Hill was cool on the side

Aside from the actual battling, I really had a great experience at all 4 (lol) events that I went to. The only thing I hated was how if you make it to the finalists lounge in Regionals, it doesn't mean you made top 16. So, you are waiting in what is supposed to be a relaxing area even though you can lose next round and get nothing. It would also be nice if they gave everyone who qualifies for the next event a travel award. Like Drug and Osirus182 said, most people just can't pay for that.

 

[mattj]

I emailed mike about hawaii being overly difficult to get to. I didn't complain per se because i'm literally 100% satisfied with how things went this year and how the staff handled everything. I just wanted to make sure he heard my opinion on it and if you feel the same way you should email him too. It's so great that he always responds and listens.

 

[Sixfortyfive]

What's Mike's e-mail, anyway?

 

[TTS]

My biggest complaint about this year's VGC is what most of you have already said -- Hawaii is a huge pain to get to for people in the continental US, especially those on the East coast. I got a big smile when they started bringing out chairs on Saturday, made the whole thing so much more comfortable.

Other thoughts include: Perhaps next year they should start on the East coast and work their way West. I'm sure they usually start on the West due to the fact TPCI is based in Washington, but it'd be nice. The metagame evolves really quickly in these tournaments, and giving the East coast people a chance to play before the metagame stabilizes for once would be nice, I guess.

Really, I'm really happy with the way these tournaments are being run. Rules wise, I'd love for shit like quick claw and brightpowder to be banned, but I don't see that realistically happening :[ The 2 uber limit was a great way to allow ubers but not let the metagame get centralized down to like 10-15 Pokemon.

 

[Dimsun]

My thing is, I think there should be 3 age divisions; mainly because Im not a huge fan of playing people with a ten year age difference, and Im sure a lot of you guys aren't huge fans of eliminating a little kid first round. Its not nice. XD While it may cause the oldest division to get even tougher, the little kids could have a more fair game. The other reason; TCG gets three divisions, we have time for three divisions, why not have 3?